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'Bastion' (ALL) To Get Stranger's Dream DLC Next Week

Bastion is an original action role-playing game set in a lush imaginative world, in which players must create and fight for civilization's last refuge as a mysterious narrator marks their every move.

Featuring a unique interactive narrative style and handpainted environments in dazzling full-HD, Bastion challenges players to build a new world from the broken remnants of the past.

The goal of the game is to construct a safe haven in the wake of the Calamity, a cataclysmic event that shattered the world into a series of floating islands. As players journey into the wild unknown in search of survivors and supplies, they will confront strange beasts, forge an array of customizable weapons, and gain new powers from specially-brewed spirits. The entire play experience of Bastion is dynamically narrated, gradually revealing a rich backstory as the narrator reacts to the player's actions in real time.

In Bastion, players take control of a character known as the Kid, who is thrust into a world that has literally crumbled around him in a great Calamity. He must now construct a safe haven and build a new world from the remnants of the past. The game features lush and imaginative artwork as well as an innovative reactive narration system that responds to the player’s actions in real time all throughout the adventure. Bastion includes more than 30 areas to explore set in several wildly different environments, a variety of weapons and upgrades to discover, and a deep storyline to unravel.

One of the most frequently asked questions we got since Bastion’s release this summer is, will there be any DLC for the game? We’ve brushed it aside, stating that we designed Bastion to be a complete, stand-alone experience and would never seek to extend the story through DLC. All this is true.

HOWEVER! In the weeks following the release of the game, we decided to put a little something together for the holidays as a show of thanks to our fans. So, on December 14, we’ll be pleased to bring you the Stranger’s Dream DLC for Bastion, which should give you some good reasons to come back to the game while preserving the core experience just as we intended.

The Stranger’s Dream DLC includes:

The Stranger’s Dream: a new fully narrated Who Knows Where sequence, bigger and more challenging than the others. You’ll gain a bit more insight into Rucks’ backstory as well as the history of Caelondia if you can survive this fight.

Score Attack Mode: a challenging new way to play through the story! You start at level one with all Spirits and Idols unlocked. Your combat performance is rated for efficiency, and all areas are repeatable.

No-Sweat Mode: for those who just want to experience the story of Bastion, this mode provides unlimited chances to carry on from where you left off if you’re defeated in battle.

The Steam and XBLA versions of the game will also contain new Leaderboards for the Stranger’s Dream and Score Attack Mode.

To access the Stranger’s Dream sequence as well as Score Attack Mode, you need to have finished the game at least once. The Stranger’s Dream sequence will be available early on in your New Game Plus or Score Attack play-through.

Xbox LIVE Arcade Users: Start the game on December 14 or later to be prompted to download our new Title Update. You’ll see an option to download the new content from the main menu once you have the Title Update, which also fixes various minor issues in the game. The Stranger’s Dream DLC will be available for 80 Microsoft Points ($1) on XBLA, which we can’t make free due to Microsoft policy, so it’s about as close as we could get. Though, since you’ll be getting a good chunk of new content, we think you’ll be satisfied with your purchase.

Non-Steam PC Users: We’ll be working with the various online vendors to update their versions of the Bastion installer so that you can download the latest version containing the update.

Google Chrome Users: Our newly-announced Google Chrome version will be getting this DLC as well, in the coming weeks. Your version of the game should update automatically when the DLC becomes available.

Key Features:

Reactive narrator – Bastion introduces a one‐of‐a‐kind reactive narration system, which gradually reveals a rich back story as the narrator reacts to the player’s actions, allowing for the player to have a truly personalized gameplay experience. The game features thousands of lines of narration. No player will be able to hear it all the first time through the game.

Lush, hand‐painted world – Bastion is presented in a high‐definition, richly‐detailed painterly art style, which enhances the fantastical world design and immerses players in the unique setting and atmosphere.

Nimble, active combat – The game offers exciting, highly responsive moment‐to‐moment action that rewards player skill and experimentation, allowing players to develop their own unique fighting styles by mixing and matching from a large variety of customizable weapons, each with their own special moves and mechanics.

Frequent gameplay‐customizing choices – Bastion features many customizable elements including an array of weapons and upgrades as well as a special system that allows players to raise game difficulty in exchange for greater rewards.

Grand adventure – This is a full‐length experience offering 8 to 10 hours of fully narrated gameplay. Once players finish the journey, they unlock a "New Game Plus" mode, which introduces additional content and new ways to play.